Yale University: Lux et Veritas

Residing in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University is a private Ivy League research university. The school was founded in 1701 and renamed “Yale College” in 1718 after Elihu Yale for his generous donations to the school. By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Yale became a true university with the addition of graduate and professional schools. Fun fact: Yale’s motto is “Lux et Veritas” which is Hebrew for “light and truth.”

Yale consists of the college, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and thirteen professional schools. In a city environment, Yale has a campus of 315 acres. It also follows a semester-based academic calendar. Yale is not only known for its rivalry with Harvard University, but for its outstanding drama and music programs and their mascot Handsome Dan, a bulldog.

Yale is a small college and a major research university. It has a student to professor ratio of 5:1 and with roughly 77 percent of its classes having 20 students or less. Students come from all over the country and the world (108 countries) to attend Yale University. Unfortunately for many hopeful students, Yale’s acceptance rate is only 7.7 percent. Yale has a population ratio of 50:50 percent male to female students. Yale began accepting female graduate students in 1869 and undergraduate students in 1969. Roughly 16 percent of the entire population is of international students.

Famous alumni of Yale include Eli Whitney, Benjamin Spock, George H. W. Bush, Paul Newman, and Mary Louis “Meryl” Streep among several others. Eli Whitney, an American inventor, earned his B.A. in 1792 and is most widely known for inventing the cotton gin. Benjamin Spock received his B.A. at the Yale School of Medicine in 1925; he is a famous American pediatrician known for writing the book Baby and Child Care, revolutionizing the way people cared for their children. Vice President to Ronald Reagan and 41^st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush received his B.A. in Economics in 1948. American actor, film director, entrepreneur, and humanitarian Paul Leonard Newman attended the Yale School of Drama and received his DRA in 1954. Mary Louise “Meryl” Streep an American movie and theater actress has won two Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, two Emmy Awards, and many more; she earned her M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama in 1972.

Some popular majors at Yale include Political Science and Government, Economics, History, Psychology, and Biology/Biological Sciences. At this point because I am undecided, and there are so many options, I have no idea what I would major in if I attended Yale. I do know though that if I were to attend Yale, I would get my M.F.A. at the Yale School of Drama. Considering Meryl Streep is a phenomenal actress, and one of my favorites, I would say the Yale School of Drama has a great track record with exceptional alumni. 

 

During the first week of this amazing adventure I will share with my cohorts and chaperone, we will tour five schools, one of which being Yale. An Ivy League School and a prestigious university, Yale is definitely one of the many colleges I plan to apply to in the fall. What I find the most intriguing and attractive about Yale is the fact that most of the courses have less than twenty students. Although I am over the moon about attending Columbia this summer, I am jealous of the four young men attending Yale in August.